o Rhyme. Neither do the
Spanish, French, Italians, or Germans acknowledge at all, or very rarely,
any such kind of Poesy as Blank Verse among them. Therefore, at most, 'tis
but a Poetic Prose, _a sermo pedestris_; and, as such, most fit for
Comedies: where I acknowledge Rhyme to be improper.

"Farther, as to that quotation of ARISTOTLE, our Couplet Verses may be
rendered _as near_ Prose, as Blank Verse itself; by using those
advantages I lately named, as Breaks in the Hemistich, or Running the
Sense into another line: thereby, making Art and Order appear as loose
and free as Nature. Or, not tying ourselves to Couplets strictly, we may
use the benefit of the Pindaric way, practised in the _Siege of Rhodes_;
where the numbers vary, and the rhyme is disposed carelessly, and far
from often chiming.

"Neither is that other advantage of the Ancients to be despised, of
changing the Kind of Verse, when they please, with the change of the
Scene, or some new Entrance. For they confine not themselves always to
Iambics; but extend their liberty to all Lyric Numbers; and sometimes,
even, to Hexameter.

"But I need not go so far, to prove that Rhyme, as it succeeds to all
other offices of Greek and Latin Verse, so especially to this of Plays;
since the custom of all nations, at this day, confirms it. All the
French, Italian, and Spanish Tragedies are generally writ in it; and,
sure[ly], the Universal Consent of the most civilised parts of the world
ought in this, as it doth in other customs, [to] include the rest.

"But perhaps, you may tell me, I have proposed such a way to make Rhyme
_natural_; and, consequently, proper to Plays, as is impracticable; and
that I shall scarce find six or eight lines together in a Play, where the
words are so placed and chosen, as is required to make it _natural_.

"I answer, no Poet need constrain himself, at all times, to it. It is
enough, he makes it his general rule. For I deny not but sometimes there
may be a greatness in placing the words otherwise; and sometimes they may
sound better. Sometimes also, the variety itself is excuse enough. But if,
for the most part, the words be placed, as they are in the negligence of
Prose; it is sufficient to denominate the way _practicable_: for we
esteem that to be such, which, in the trial, oftener succeeds than
misses. And thus far, you may find the practice made good in many Plays:
where, you do not remember still! that if you cannot find six natural